This book introduces a comprehensive and mathematically rigorous controller design for families of nonlinear systems with time-varying parameters and unstructured uncertainties. Although the presented methodology is general, the specific family of systems considered is the latest, NextGen, unconventional fixed-wing unmanned aircraft with circulation control or morphing wings, or a combination of both. The approach considers various sources of model and parameter uncertainty, while the controller design depends not on a nominal plant model, but instead on a family of admissible plants. In contrast to existing controller designs that consider multiple models and multiple controllers, the proposed approach is based on the 'one controller fits all models' within the unstructured uncertainty interval. The book presents a modeling-based analysis and synthesis approach with additive uncertainty weighting functions for accurate realization of the candidate systems. This differs significantly from existing designs in that it is capable of handling time-varying characteristics. This research monograph is suitable for scientists, engineers, researchers and graduate students with a background in control system theory who are interested in complex engineering nonlinear systems.

This book introduces a comprehensive and mathematically rigorous controller design for families of nonlinear systems with time-varying parameters and unstructured uncertainties. Although the presented methodology is general, the specific family of systems considered is the latest, NextGen, unconventional fixed-wing unmanned aircraft with circulation control or morphing wings, or a combination of both. The approach considers various sources of model and parameter uncertainty, while the controller design depends not on a nominal plant model, but instead on a family of admissible plants. In contrast to existing controller designs that consider multiple models and multiple controllers, the proposed approach is based on the 'one controller fits all models' within the unstructured uncertainty interval. The book presents a modeling-based analysis and synthesis approach with additive uncertainty weighting functions for accurate realization of the candidate systems. This differs significantly from existing designs in that it is capable of handling time-varying characteristics. This research monograph is suitable for scientists, engineers, researchers and graduate students with a background in control system theory who are interested in complex engineering nonlinear systems.

In the last decade, signi?cant changes have occurred in the ?eld of vehicle motion planning, and for UAVs in particular. UAV motion planning is especially dif?cult due to several complexities not considered by earlier planning strategies: the - creased importance of differential constraints, atmospheric turbulence which makes it impossible to follow a pre-computed plan precisely, uncertainty in the vehicle state, and limited knowledge about the environment due to limited sensor capabilities. These differences have motivated the increased use of feedback and other control engineering techniques for motion planning. The lack of exact algorithms for these problems and dif?culty inherent in characterizing approximation algorithms makes it impractical to determine algorithm time complexity, completeness, and even soundness. This gap has not yet been addressed by statistical characterization of experimental performance of algorithms and benchmarking. Because of this overall lack of knowledge, it is dif?cult to design a guidance system, let alone choose the algorithm. Throughout this paper we keep in mind some of the general characteristics and requirements pertaining to UAVs. A UAV is typically modeled as having velocity and acceleration constraints (and potentially the higher-order differential constraints associated with the equations of motion), and the objective is to guide the vehicle towards a goal through an obstacle ?eld. A UAV guidance problem is typically characterized by a three-dimensional problem space, limited information about the environment, on-board sensors with limited range, speed and acceleration constraints, and uncertainty in vehicle state and sensor data.

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) have seen unprecedented levels of growth during the last decade in both military and civilian domains. However, it is anticipated that civilian applications will be dominant in the future, although there are still barriers to be overcome and technical challenges to be met. For example, integrating UAS into civilian space, fully autonomous navigation, see-detect-and-avoid systems, smart UAS designs, system integration, vision-based navigation, logistics and training, to name but a few areas, will be of prime importance in the near future. This special volume is the outcome of research presented at the International Symposium on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, held in Dubai in June 2010, and presents state-of-the-art findings on topics related to: UAS operations and integration into the national airspace system; UAS navigation and control; micro-, mini-, small UAVs; UAS simulation testbeds and frameworks; UAS research platforms and applications; UAS applications. This book aims at serving as a guide tool on UAS for engineers and practitioners, academics, government agencies and industry. This is a hardbound spinoff from the Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, Volume 61:1-4, 2011.

This book presents, in a comprehensive way, current unmanned aviation regulation, airworthiness certification, special aircraft categories, pilot certification, federal aviation requirements, operation rules, airspace classes and regulation development models. It discusses unmanned aircraft systems levels of safety derived mathematically based on the corresponding levels for manned aviation. It provides an overview of the history and current status of UAS airworthiness and operational regulation worldwide. Existing regulations have been developed considering the need for a complete regulatory framework for UAS. It focuses on UAS safety assessment and functional requirements, achieved in terms of defining an "Equivalent Level of Safety", or ELOS, with that of manned aviation, specifying what the ELOS requirement entails for UAS regulations. To accomplish this, the safety performance of manned aviation is first evaluated, followed by a novel model to derive reliability requirements for achieving target levels of safety (TLS) for ground impact and mid-air collision accidents.It discusses elements of a viable roadmap leading to UAS integration in to the NAS. For this second edition of the book almost all chapters include major updates and corrections. There is also a new appendix chapter.

There has been significant interest for designing flight controllers for small-scale unmanned helicopters. Such helicopters preserve all the physical attributes of their full-scale counterparts, being at the same time more agile and dexterous. This book presents a comprehensive and well justified analysis for designing flight controllers for small-scale unmanned helicopters guarantying flight stability and tracking accuracy. The design of the flight controller is a critical and integral part for developing an autonomous helicopter platform. Helicopters are underactuated, highly nonlinear systems with significant dynamic coupling that needs to be considered and accounted for during controller design and implementation. Most reliable mathematical tools for analysis of control systems relate to modern control theory. Modern control techniques are model-based since the controller architecture depends on the dynamic representation of the system to be controlled. Therefore, the flight controller design problem is tightly connected with the helicopter modeling.

This book provides a step-by-step methodology for designing, evaluating and implementing efficient flight controllers for small-scale helicopters. Design issues that are analytically covered include:

An illustrative presentation of both linear and nonlinear models of ordinary differential equations representing the helicopter dynamics. A detailed presentation of the helicopter equations of motion is given for the derivation of both model types. In addition, an insightful presentation of the main rotor's mechanism, aerodynamics and dynamics is also provided. Both model types are of low complexity, physically meaningful and capable of encapsulating the dynamic behavior of a large class of small-scale helicopters.

An illustrative and rigorous derivation of mathematical control algorithms based on both the linear and nonlinear representation of the helicopter dynamics. Flight controller designs guarantee that the tracking objectives of the helicopter's inertial position (or velocity) and heading are achieved. Each controller is carefully constructed by considering the small-scale helicopter's physical flight capabilities. Concepts of advanced stability analysis are used to improve the efficiency and reduce the complexity of the flight control system. Controller designs are derived in both continuous time and discrete time covering discretization issues, which emerge from the implementation of the control algorithm using microprocessors.

Presentation of the most powerful, practical and efficient methods for extracting the helicopter model parameters based on input/output responses, collected by the measurement instruments. This topic is of particular importance for real-life implementation of the control algorithms.

This book is suitable for students and researches interested in the development and the mathematical derivation of flight controllers for small-scale helicopters. Background knowledge in modern control is required."

Since the late 1960s, there has been a revolution in robots and industrial automation, from the design of robots with no computing or sensorycapabilities (first-generation), to the design of robots with limited computational power and feedback capabilities (second-generation), and the design of intelligent robots (third-generation), which possess diverse sensing and decision making capabilities. The development of the theory of intelligent machines has been developed in parallel to the advances in robot design. This theory is the natural outcome of research and development in classical control (1950s), adaptive and learning control (1960s), self-organizing control (1970s) and intelligent control systems (1980s). The theory of intelligent machines involves utilization and integration of concepts and ideas from the diverse disciplines of science, engineering and mathematics, and fields like artificial intelligence, system theory and operations research. The main focus and motivation is to bridge the gap between diverse disciplines involved and bring under a common cover several generic methodologies pertaining to what has been defined as machine intelligence. Intelligent robotic systems are a specific application of intelligent machines. They are complex computer controlled robotic systems equipped with a diverse set of visual and non visual sensors and possess decision making and problem solving capabilities within their domain of operation. Their modeling and control is accomplished via analytical and heuristic methodologies and techniques pertaining to generalized system theory and artificial intelligence. Intelligent Robotic Systems: Theory, Design and Applications, presents and justifies the fundamental concepts and ideas associated with the modeling and analysis of intelligent robotic systems. Appropriate for researchers and engineers in the general area of robotics and automation, Intelligent Robotic Systems is both a solid reference as well as a text for a graduate level course in intelligent robotics/machines.

This book presents, in a comprehensive way, current unmanned aviation regulation, airworthiness certification, special aircraft categories, pilot certification, federal aviation requirements, operation rules, airspace classes and regulation development models. It discusses unmanned aircraft systems levels of safety derived mathematically based on the corresponding levels for manned aviation. It provides an overview of the history and current status of UAS airworthiness and operational regulation worldwide. Existing regulations have been developed considering the need for a complete regulatory framework for UAS. It focuses on UAS safety assessment and functional requirements, achieved in terms of defining an "Equivalent Level of Safety," or ELOS, with that of manned aviation, specifying what the ELOS requirement entails for UAS regulations. To accomplish this, the safety performance of manned aviation is first evaluated, followed by a novel model to derive reliability requirements for achieving target levels of safety (TLS) for ground impact and mid-air collision accidents.It discusses elements of a viable roadmap leading to UAS integration in to the NAS. For this second edition of the book almost all chapters include major updates and corrections. There is also a new appendix chapter.

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) have seen unprecedented levels of growth during the last decade in both military and civilian domains. However, it is anticipated that civilian applications will be dominant in the future, although there are still barriers to be overcome and technical challenges to be met. For example, integrating UAS into civilian space, fully autonomous navigation, see-detect-and-avoid systems, smart UAS designs, system integration, vision-based navigation, logistics and training, to name but a few areas, will be of prime importance in the near future. This special volume is the outcome of research presented at the International Symposium on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, held in Dubai in June 2010, and presents state-of-the-art findings on topics related to: UAS operations and integration into the national airspace system; UAS navigation and control; micro-, mini-, small UAVs; UAS simulation testbeds and frameworks; UAS research platforms and applications; UAS applications. This book aims at serving as a guide tool on UAS for engineers and practitioners, academics, government agencies and industry. This is a hardbound spinoff from the Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, Volume 61:1-4, 2011.

The past decade has seen tremendous interest in the production and refinement of unmanned aerial vehicles, both fixed-wing, such as airplanes and rotary-wing, such as helicopters and vertical takeoff and landing vehicles. This book provides a diversified survey of research and development on small and miniature unmanned aerial vehicles of both fixed and rotary wing designs. From historical background to proposed new applications, this is the most comprehensive reference yet.

Thiseditedbookispublishedin honorofDr. GeorgeJ. Vachtsevanos, ourDr. V, c- rently Professor Emeritus, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, on the occasion of his 70th birthday and for his more than 30 years of contribution to the discipline of Intelligent Control and its application to a wide spectrum of engineering and bioengineering systems. The book is nothing but a very small token of appreciation from Dr. V's former graduate students, his peers and colleagues in the profession - and not only - to the Scientist, the Engineer, the Professor, the mentor, but most important of all, to the friend and human being. All those who have met Dr. V over the years and haveinteractedwith himin someprofessionaland/orsocial capacityunderstandthis statement: Georgenevermadeanybodyfeelinferiortohim, hehelpedandsupported everybody, and he was there when anybody needed him I was not Dr. V's student. I rst met him and his wife Athena more than 26 years ago during one of their visits to RPI, in the house of my late advisor, Dr. George N. Saridis. Since then, I have been very fortunate to have had and continue to have interactions with him. It is not an exaggeration if I say that we all learned a lot from him.

There has been significant interest for designing flight controllers for small-scale unmanned helicopters. Such helicopters preserve all the physical attributes of their full-scale counterparts, being at the same time more agile and dexterous. This book presents a comprehensive and well justified analysis for designing flight controllers for small-scale unmanned helicopters guarantying flight stability and tracking accuracy. The design of the flight controller is a critical and integral part for developing an autonomous helicopter platform. Helicopters are underactuated, highly nonlinear systems with significant dynamic coupling that needs to be considered and accounted for during controller design and implementation. Most reliable mathematical tools for analysis of control systems relate to modern control theory. Modern control techniques are model-based since the controller architecture depends on the dynamic representation of the system to be controlled. Therefore, the flight controller design problem is tightly connected with the helicopter modeling.

This book provides a step-by-step methodology for designing, evaluating and implementing efficient flight controllers for small-scale helicopters. Design issues that are analytically covered include:

An illustrative presentation of both linear and nonlinear models of ordinary differential equations representing the helicopter dynamics. A detailed presentation of the helicopter equations of motion is given for the derivation of both model types. In addition, an insightful presentation of the main rotor's mechanism, aerodynamics and dynamics is also provided. Both model types are of low complexity, physically meaningful and capable of encapsulating the dynamic behavior of a large class of small-scale helicopters.

An illustrative and rigorous derivation of mathematical control algorithms based on both the linear and nonlinear representation of the helicopter dynamics. Flight controller designs guarantee that the tracking objectives of the helicopter's inertial position (or velocity) and heading are achieved. Each controller is carefully constructed by considering the small-scale helicopter's physical flight capabilities. Concepts of advanced stability analysis are used to improve the efficiency and reduce the complexity of the flight control system. Controller designs are derived in both continuous time and discrete time covering discretization issues, which emerge from the implementation of the control algorithm using microprocessors.

Presentation of the most powerful, practical and efficient methods for extracting the helicopter model parameters based on input/output responses, collected by the measurement instruments. This topic is of particular importance for real-life implementation of the control algorithms.

This book is suitable for students and researches interested in the development and the mathematical derivation of flight controllers for small-scale helicopters. Background knowledge in modern control is required."

In the last decade, signi?cant changes have occurred in the ?eld of vehicle motion planning, and for UAVs in particular. UAV motion planning is especially dif?cult due to several complexities not considered by earlier planning strategies: the - creased importance of differential constraints, atmospheric turbulence which makes it impossible to follow a pre-computed plan precisely, uncertainty in the vehicle state, and limited knowledge about the environment due to limited sensor capabilities. These differences have motivated the increased use of feedback and other control engineering techniques for motion planning. The lack of exact algorithms for these problems and dif?culty inherent in characterizing approximation algorithms makes it impractical to determine algorithm time complexity, completeness, and even soundness. This gap has not yet been addressed by statistical characterization of experimental performance of algorithms and benchmarking. Because of this overall lack of knowledge, it is dif?cult to design a guidance system, let alone choose the algorithm. Throughout this paper we keep in mind some of the general characteristics and requirements pertaining to UAVs. A UAV is typically modeled as having velocity and acceleration constraints (and potentially the higher-order differential constraints associated with the equations of motion), and the objective is to guide the vehicle towards a goal through an obstacle ?eld. A UAV guidance problem is typically characterized by a three-dimensional problem space, limited information about the environment, on-board sensors with limited range, speed and acceleration constraints, and uncertainty in vehicle state and sensor data.

Thiseditedbookispublishedin honorofDr. GeorgeJ. Vachtsevanos, ourDr. V, c- rently Professor Emeritus, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, on the occasion of his 70th birthday and for his more than 30 years of contribution to the discipline of Intelligent Control and its application to a wide spectrum of engineering and bioengineering systems. The book is nothing but a very small token of appreciation from Dr. V's former graduate students, his peers and colleagues in the profession - and not only - to the Scientist, the Engineer, the Professor, the mentor, but most important of all, to the friend and human being. All those who have met Dr. V over the years and haveinteractedwith himin someprofessionaland/orsocial capacityunderstandthis statement: Georgenevermadeanybodyfeelinferiortohim, hehelpedandsupported everybody, and he was there when anybody needed him I was not Dr. V's student. I rst met him and his wife Athena more than 26 years ago during one of their visits to RPI, in the house of my late advisor, Dr. George N. Saridis. Since then, I have been very fortunate to have had and continue to have interactions with him. It is not an exaggeration if I say that we all learned a lot from him.

The past decade has seen tremendous interest in the production and refinement of unmanned aerial vehicles, both fixed-wing, such as airplanes and rotary-wing, such as helicopters and vertical takeoff and landing vehicles. This book provides a diversified survey of research and development on small and miniature unmanned aerial vehicles of both fixed and rotary wing designs. From historical background to proposed new applications, this is the most comprehensive reference yet.

Focusing on the important control problems in state-of-the-art robotics and automation, this volume features invited papers from a workshop held at CDC, San Diego, California. As well as looking at current problems, it aims to identify and discuss challenging issues that are yet to be solved but which will be vital to future research directions. The many topics covered include: automatic control, distributed multi-agent control, multirobots, dexterous hands, flexible manipulators, walking robots, free-floating systems, nonholonomic robots, sensor fusion, fuzzy control, virtual reality, visual servoing, and task synchronization. Control Problems in Robotics and Automation will be of interest to all researchers, scientists and graduate students who wish to broaden their knowledge in robotics and automation and prepare themselves to address and resolve the control problems that will be faced in this field as we enter the twenty-first century.

Since the late 1960s, there has been a revolution in robots and industrial automation, from the design of robots with no computing or sensorycapabilities (first-generation), to the design of robots with limited computational power and feedback capabilities (second-generation), and the design of intelligent robots (third-generation), which possess diverse sensing and decision making capabilities. The development of the theory of intelligent machines has been developed in parallel to the advances in robot design. This theory is the natural outcome of research and development in classical control (1950s), adaptive and learning control (1960s), self-organizing control (1970s) and intelligent control systems (1980s). The theory of intelligent machines involves utilization and integration of concepts and ideas from the diverse disciplines of science, engineering and mathematics, and fields like artificial intelligence, system theory and operations research. The main focus and motivation is to bridge the gap between diverse disciplines involved and bring under a common cover several generic methodologies pertaining to what has been defined as machine intelligence. Intelligent robotic systems are a specific application of intelligent machines. They are complex computer controlled robotic systems equipped with a diverse set of visual and non visual sensors and possess decision making and problem solving capabilities within their domain of operation. Their modeling and control is accomplished via analytical and heuristic methodologies and techniques pertaining to generalized system theory and artificial intelligence. Intelligent Robotic Systems: Theory, Design and Applications, presents and justifies the fundamental concepts and ideas associated with the modeling and analysis of intelligent robotic systems. Appropriate for researchers and engineers in the general area of robotics and automation, Intelligent Robotic Systems is both a solid reference as well as a text for a graduate level course in intelligent robotics/machines.

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) have seen unprecedented levels of growth during the last decade in both military and civilian domains. It is anticipated that civilian applications will be dominant in the future, although there are still barriers to be overcome and technical challenges to be met. Integrating UAS into, for example, civilian space, navigation, autonomy, see-detect-and-avoid systems, smart designs, system integration, vision-based navigation and training, to name but a few areas, will be of prime importance in the near future.

This special volume is the outcome of research presented at the International Symposium on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, held in Orlando, Florida, USA, from June 23-25, 2008, and presents state-of-the-art findings on topics such as: UAS operations and integration into the national airspace system; UAS navigation and control; micro-, mini-, small UAVs; UAS simulation testbeds and frameworks; UAS research platforms and applications; UAS applications.

This book aims at serving as a guide tool on UAS for engineers and practitioners, academics, government agencies and industry.

Previously published in the Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, 54 (1-3, 2009).